BELUGA BOOGIE: Whale Digs Mariachi

I’m a little confused about the provenance of this video, but I do know it was shot at Mystic Aquarium in Connecticut. Something about a wedding, a beluga whale named Juno, and a mariachi band. What I’m unclear about is who was marrying who. I wonder, too, what happens to the sound waves as they travel through the glass and then the water to the whale’s ears? What does this music really sound like to the whale?

Clearly, it is enjoying itself. I’m reminded of a fellow I once met in the Canary Islands who told me a story about a whale that started enjoying itself against the hull of his boat at sea. Nothing hostile. The whale was just affectionately rubbing its body up against the boat.

At first this fellow and his crew thought this was kind of cool. Soon, however, they realized things might get ugly if the whale felt the boat wasn’t reciprocating appropriately. All they could think of was that the boat must be making some sound that was attractive to the whale. So they shut down every system on the boat… and the whale went away.

Ever since hearing this story, whenever I see a whale at sea, I think of all the things it hears that I cannot.

An administrative note: Hopefully you’ve noticed that WaveTrain has been redesigned. A little bit anyway. I loved the Flash wave toy that used to run at the top of the page (kudos to John Turner at Media Buoy for that), but it really bummed me out that people trying to read the site on Apple gadgets couldn’t see it.

I, for one, will not be missing the omnipotent influence of Mr. Jobs.

Now I’ve got David Wells of Forty Six Web Development tweaking a few things for me. (One example: I can now embed videos!) Let me know what you like and don’t like about the design of the site.